A Complete Guide of What To Do in Cheyenne, WY

Cheyenne, Wyoming offers travelers a real taste of the Old West. Once a booming town built around the railway, Cheyenne stays true to its roots by maintaining much of their locomotive history and western traditions. Refer to this complete guide of what to do in Cheyenne, WY before going on your next weekend getaway to this laidback, scenic destination.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello, jet setters. How are you doing this I just recently came back from San Diego in California and it was so nice. San Diego is such a cool town, and I love that it's near the water and it would be a cool place to live, but California is pretty expensive. 

But anyway, I hope you are having a great week. And today's podcast episode. We are talking about. What to do in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Now as we're recording This is November. And Cheyenne starting to get pretty cold. For the winter. So some of these are better when it's warmer because their outdoor activities. 

But you can just go ahead and save this episode for when you're planning a trip. And hopefully you'll be able to [00:01:00] do all of the things on this awesome list. So a little bit about Cheyenne. It. It offers travelers a real taste of the old west. It was once a booming town built around the railway. So Cheyenne definitely stays true to its roots by maintaining much of their locomotive history and their Western traditions. 

So we're going to go over 19 different things that you can do in the area. The first of which is get an authentic cowboy experience at the hell on wheels rodeo. Now this one particularly has to be in the summertime. It's held every Friday in the summer. And it's really a perfect welcome to Cheyenne. If you're coming in for a weekend getaway. 

Though optional, I highly recommend getting the chuckwagon dinner package offered by hell on wheels prior to the start of the rodeo, [00:02:00] you can mingle with locals. Try award-winning brisket from three lazy are Chuck wagon. And you can enjoy the Western audience with red and white checkered tablecloth and lantern and fire wildflower, centerpieces. 

Dinner includes brisket. That's slow, cooked over a fire all afternoon. Baked beans, garlic roasted babies, potatoes, and warm cobbler with some ice cold. Ice cream. Of course. Following dinner, head over to the rodeo arena and start watching the events, including steer wrestling, bareback riding, breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding tie-down roping team roping, barrel racing, and bull riding. 

Tickets are $50 for the dinner. And rodeo or $25 for the rodeo. If you choose not to do the dinner, they also have food [00:03:00] trucks and drinks available for purchase at the rodeo. Next is to visit one of Cheyanne's many museums. I was surprised to realize how many museums Cheyenne has many of which are Western related and or free to the public. 

I visited the cowgirls of the west museum and the Cheyenne Depot museum during our weekend getaway, both museums are relatively small and could be experienced in approximately an hour or two. I enjoyed visiting these museums because they helped add a lot of context. To how the town was in the past and what the town is proud of today

I'll give you a few suggestions of museums that you can visit. There is, like I mentioned before, the cowgirls of the west museum, it's a free museum of cowgirl history featuring historical artifacts, antiques. Western saddles, [00:04:00] clothing and memorabilia. There's the Cheyenne Depot museum, which is a railroad museum located in downtown Cheyenne. Located inside the historic union Pacific railroad Depot. 

There's the Wyoming state museum. It's a free state museum featuring a vast collection of Wyoming art history and wildlife. The Nelson museum of the west. It's a museum featuring Western history, exhibits, Western art and artifacts. And there's the Cheyenne frontier days old west museum. It's a museum that houses thousands of old west artifacts from the night 18th and 19th centuries and it is one of the united state's largest collections of horse drawn carriages

Next we have enjoying cocktails at the paramount ballroom. The paramount ballroom is the perfect place to enjoy some small bites and cocktails. They have a beautiful [00:05:00] chic interior as well as a backlot patio, surrounded by urban murals. We enjoyed a picture of a cocktail with pineapple and jalapeno, and it was the perfect mix of sweet and spicy. 

For nibbles, we tried the cheeseboard, the deviled eggs, the homemade honey hummus made of at a mommy. And the warm salted pretzel with smoked Rosemary salt and Chipolte late. Aole. Each dish was absolutely divine, but my favorites had to be the edamame hummus and the pretzel with the Chipola dip. 

If you want a bit of a nicer experience, you can delight in a dinner at the metropolitan downtown. Serving brunch, lunch and dinner. The metropolitan downtown is a staple restaurant in the downtown area of Cheyenne. The metropolitan downtown has a chef-driven menu with a [00:06:00] casual atmosphere. It's the perfect place for a nice evening out with elevated service in a laid back polished environment. 

You can enjoy find fish or a steak paired with good wine. Check the events calendar for special themed evenings such as comedy nights dueling pianos magic shows and more

If you're a fan of local breweries and craft beer. You definitely need to try a beer flight at one of their local breweries. Now y'all know, I personally love a good flight, whether it's a beer flight, wine flight, coffee I just like having choices. So. You know, I'm going to be doing that. If you enjoy exploring new local beers, then. 

There's a few to choose from in Cheyenne. We went to accomplice beer company, and I found their beers to be both unique with menu items like Belgium, wit beer, Amber lager, and American Porter. But there were [00:07:00] also some classics in there too. I also really loved their kale salad and their homemade kettle chips. 

So that's one option accomplice beer company. There's also the freedom's edge brewing company. It's the oldest operating brewery in Cheyenne. 

And there's the black tooth brewing company nearby. Which is located in Sheridan. 

I definitely recommend going on a wild west trolley tour with Cheyenne street, railway trolley. It's one of the best ways to get a good overview of Cheyenne's past and present. I love recommending that people go on some sort of overview tour on people's first, full day in a new destination. Personally, my favorite thing to recommend is like a bike tour, but walking tours or railway trolley tours, like this are equally as good. 

So when you're in Cheyenne, the [00:08:00] railway trolley is definitely the way to go. Not only will you get a good guidance of the layout of the town and all of its historical landmarks. But you'll also hear in interesting facts about the city and the stories that will help paint a better picture of the town's past and help you appreciate the destination as you explore it on your own for the remainder 

We had a wonderful, knowledgeable trolley driver. And her name was Sue. She shared much of the origins of Cheyenne, as well as even a tale of an authentic paranormal encounter, which was by far my favorite story that I heard on the tour. It's pretty crazy. If you visit in the month of October, you can actually go on a paranormal themed. 

 Railway trolley tour. So keep that 

But the normal general overview one is called wild west. And that is 90 minutes [00:09:00] long and it's $15 per adult. 

Another thing to do. That's fun is to find all of the Cheyenne big boots throughout the downtown area. So spread all across triad. Are these. Big boots that are eight feet tall and it's a singular cowboy boot. That's been carefully painted by local artists. So each one is completely different from the next different colors and all the same shape and size, but just completely decorated lead differently. 

You can actually go on a scavenger hunt to find them all, if you would like. You can pick up a location map at the centrally located Cheyenne Depot visitor center. There are also cell phone, audio tours available. And in that you can actually hear the artists reflect on their creations by pressing the boots number. 

[00:10:00] And then listening to a little bit more about the history behind that boot or the inspiration behind the boot. There are also quite a few historical homes in Cheyenne. As expected with a historic town that was founded back in 1867. Of course you can expect some historic homes will follow. There are quite a few on the national register of historic places. 

But a couple that stood out to me that I'll share with you were the Nagel Warren mansion and the Wyoming historic governor's mansion. You can actually stay in the Nagel Warren mansion. It has now been turned into an adults only bed and breakfast. And this was built in 1888 in the Victorian style. Then there's the, like I said before, the historic governor's mansion. 

It is a mansion that was built in 1904 in [00:11:00] the grand colonial revival style. And it has been home to 19 of Wyoming's first families. Including the first female governor in the United States. 

Next up on our list. We've got spotting murals in downtown Cheyenne. There are some genuinely beautiful murals dotted all around Cheyenne with these bright, beautiful colors and imagery. At present downtown Cheyenne is actually in the process of building a mobile app so that you can actually find some of these murals. 

And that should be ready in early 20, 23. Once completed, you can download the mobile app and access the mobile public art map. And the map will pinpoint all these public art locations, including the murals. The Cheyenne big boots as well as bronze statues and kinetic art. 

Another cool place that we visited while in Cheyenne [00:12:00] was the lobby in the historic Plains hotel. So we learned about the historic Plains hotel while on the railway trolley tour. And after hearing about it, we decided to walk over to see the lobby inside of this historic Plains hotel. Walking in the lobby at this hotel, literally feels like walking back in time. Much of the original design elements have been preserved to reflect the authentic old west style that it originally had. It's a hundred. 

It's a 130 room hotel and it was back in its day, considered the first luxury hotel in Wyoming built in 1911. Now it is still a grand hotel, but it's a little worse for wear. It's not obviously like a new, shiny contemporary hotel, but what I loved seeing about the lobby, aside from the gorgeous black and white tile [00:13:00] work on the floors. 

Was the incredible ceiling that was made of stained glass and. It's got like all of the planets in the solar system. In the stain glass on the ceiling. It's really beautiful. 

One of my favorite things that we did during while we were in Cheyenne, was we hiked the turtle rock trail at Now, this is technically outside of Cheyenne. It's a 30 minute drive outside of Cheyenne in Buford. But it's called It's a natural landmark that in my opinion is definitely worth driving out to. 

Of refreshing hike at value is perfect. It's a perfect way to wrap up your weekend getaway before heading back home, which is what we Now Wyoming is truly a beautiful state. So getting out into nature to experience it is highly recommended. So the Dow, it looks like this [00:14:00] secluded alien, like Rocky Oasis. 

It has an altitude of 8,000 feet. And it's got these kind of giant, big flat rocks coming out of the ground, but it also has beautiful pine forests and Aspen groves. It's name According to some is a romanticized version of the Arapaho word. 

and I'm sorry if I mispronounced that, but it means earth born. The Dow is made up of 1.4 billion year old Sherman granite. It's one of the oldest rock formations in Wyoming. So it's just a beautiful It's not too difficult and definitely worth it. 

And nearby, you can also go to Terry bison ranch. Now this place is definitely more family friendly, [00:15:00] but it's still cool to experience. It's a historic ranch located on 27,500 acres. And it's been an operation since the 1880s. So you can actually stay onsite and stay at the camp site or the RV park, or you can just visit for the day. There's a steakhouse and saloon onsite as well as a seasonal breakfast cafe and gift store that sells Buffalo meat. 

And of course being the Terry bison ranch. It allows you to have the opportunity to actually get up close with bison and even feed them. And then there are lots of other activities, including horseback riding, pony rides. Train and ATV tours and private lake fishing. 

Next on the list we have seen Wyoming's state Capitol. It is one of 20 state Capitol buildings does [00:16:00] designated as a national historic landmark. It was built in 1888. And like I said, it's only one, it's one of only 20 Capitol buildings that are marked as national historic landmarks. 

The building was built in the Renaissance revival style and it's recognizable by this grand golden dome. The peak of the dome is 146 feet high, and the base is 50 feet in diameter. The wyoming state Capitol is open for self guided tours during the week

For those of you locomotive fans out there, you will definitely want to take a visit to big boy's steam engine. It The world's largest steam locomotive. Now because Cheyenne has such a rich history in the locomotive industry. They have one of only 25 big boy locomotive steam engines [00:17:00] in their town. So only 25 of these giant locomotives were manufactured. And one of them is called big boys, steam engine number 40 14. And that one is residing in Cheyenne. 

So like other big boys, big boy, number 40 14 is 132 feet long and weighs 1.2 million pounds. Today. There are only seven still on public display out of the 25. One of which is in Cheyenne. 

Now this next one is probably what Cheyenne is best known for. And that is of course the Cheyenne frontier days. It has been it's a 126. Plus year old tradition. And it is known as the world's largest outdoor road. Rodeo. Since 1897. It's a [00:18:00] 10 day festival that delivers authentic Western entertainment. 

There are tons of events during this time. There's th there's rodeo in slack events. There's evening music, concerts, professional bull rider competitions, parades, pancake breakfasts, art shows a carnival. Visit from the U S a F Thunderbirds. There's a little frontier town, which was like a little old school Western town with shops and vendors. There is the Indian village and there's also a fashion show. 

This population. The population in Cheyenne, more than doubles every year for this event. So it's mega. And if you're not in town during the frontier days, you can still check out the Cheyenne frontier days, old west museum, which I mentioned earlier. To get a sense of this epic event. And the museum houses [00:19:00] artifacts from the old west, as well as, like I said before, it has one of the largest collections of horse-drawn carriages. 

In the United States. Next we have strolling around the Cheyenne Botanic gardens. These gardens are made up of nine acres in the lions park. And they have award-winning curated displays of plants, shrubs, and trees from around the world. There's a grand conservatory. The children's village and a community vegetable garden, and greenhouse. 

Another thing you can do is catch a play at the historic Atlas theater. The historic Atlas theater dates back to 1887. It became a theater in 1908 and is a national historic landmark. It is now operated by Cheyenne little theater and they whole The annual old fashioned mellow drama [00:20:00] every summer. It's also available for touring acts, private events and other theatrical productions. 

And it is also said that the theater is home to two active ghosts. So if you're into the paranormal, you'll definitely want to hit check out historic Atlas theater. 

Another great historic building in downtown Cheyenne is the Lincoln Cheyenne. It is today a live music venue, but it was originally a movie theater. Since 1929, the venue has hosted more than 2 million people, including a future president. And. Many of Hollywood's biggest stars. If you want to get inside of this awesome venue, you can check out the concert calendar for a list of upcoming music events that are going to be held in the Lincoln Cheyenne. 

The last on this list [00:21:00] is exploring nature at Curt Gowdy state park. Now, similar to the dowel. Curt Gowdy state park is technically outside of Cheyenne, but it's just a short drive. It's comprised of seven areas of richly varied landscape. Flora and fauna, and it's at the foothills of the Laramie mountains. The entire park covers 3,395 acres. 

In Albany and Laramie counties. It's a spot for biking, hiking, boating, camping, and fishing. So I sincerely hope that this Roundup has helped you decide on what to do in Cheyenne. If you have something to add to this list, I would love to know you can either reach out to me on social, or you can head over to the blog and drop some comments there. 

And I would love to see them. [00:22:00] All right so i hope you guys have a great rest of your week and i will talk to you soon